"EVENING STANDARD" PUBLISHES DEROGATORY ARTICLE ABOUT CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 6471 ) LONDON, July 8 (Hina) - Britain's high-circulation tabloid the "Evening Standard" on Tuesday published a derogatory article about Croatia on the eve of today's World Cup semi-final soccer match between Croatia and France. In the article titled "Don't Cheer for These Underdogs" reporter Alex Renton called Croatia "one of the nastiest little nations in Europe" and the Croatian Government a "vicious and racist regime". Renton wrote that present-day Croatia emerged "out of the tribal war that broke up old Yugoslavia", that current authorities celebrate the defeated in World War II and that they "revived" the flag, coat of arms and national anthem from the time of the fascist regime. The reporter also put forward the often-quoted claim that 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Romany were killed at the WW2 Jasenovac concentration camp. Croatian President Tudjman is reported as saying that Croatian Jews were killed "because they were thieves". "Rabid nationalism and racism still colour (Tudjman's) policy," the Evening Standard reporter wrote. He claimed that "those Serbian Croatians who survived the recent war are still denied ordinary rights and jobs, sometimes even an electricity supply" and that "Muslim children have been forcibly converted to Christianity". Renton quotes Amnesty International and the United States State Department as sources for his claims on Serbs in Croatia, democracy, human rights and freedom of the media. Asked by Hina's reporter as to the source of his information that the Croatian flag, coat of arms and national anthem are supposedly fascist symbols, Renton mentioned four: articles from other papers, journalist colleagues who were in Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina during the war, humanitarian employees who work or have worked on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and the Imperial War Museum library in London. Croatia's Embassy in London reacted to the Evening Standard article demanding the right to respond using as much space as Renton's article. Croatian Ambassador Andrija Kojakovic forwarded a letter to the editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard Max Hastings in which he warned about the unacceptable way in which Croatia was described and denied the incorrect information. (hina) ha jn /mbr 081904 MET jul 98